Welcome Back to Familiar Faces!

Chapter Four: Growing up Legacy part one

When last we left the Familiar's Abe and new wife Dina were involved in their celebratory try for a baby or five.

It worked the first time and Dina spent much of the next day blarfing blue blarf into an increasingly dirty toilet.

Al stopped by that day to see Suzi and cheer her up a bit. Suzi and Lexi aren't getting along very well without Tucker's calming presence. Well, stopped isn't the exactly right since he walked in the front door without knocking.

"I grew up here it's still my house, I'm always welcome here, you told me I would be."

I lied, kinda, I'd just wish you and all the rest of your outgoing friends would knock. But I guess you don't bother me half as much as that townie that's standing on the porch staring into the house does.

Since the whole family was present, Dina announced her pregnancy at lunch.

"Just think Momma Chloe soon you'll have a grand baby to diaper and feed, won't that be fun!"

I'm sure she's thrilled, having already raised two children of her own she'll now have another one foisted off on her just because she's a perma plat elder and that's what they're good for.

Fred and Abe missed the announcement because they were holding conversations with tomatoes and cucumbers.

Dina spent much of her pregnancy showing off her belly bump to the neighbors while playing fetch with the dogs in her undies.

"I'm proud of my pregnancy and my body, why shouldn't I show it off?"

I don't know something about beached whales comes to mind.

When she wasn't being mostly naked outside she was practicing to become a dread pirate, something that she hoped to become just as soon as a job in the adventure track appeared in the want ads.

"Arg Matey's I spy a ship with a belly full of bounty! Hard to Port my lads."

Abe was working hard on the few last points of skills he needed to finish off his lifetime want in the medical field.

"It would go a lot faster if you'd let me move this thing inside so I wouldn't have to keep stopping to go in and warm up"

I've seen the way you throw body parts around Abe, do you really think that's sanitary?

"The dogs will take care of the scraps."

Okay then I'll just go finish the basement for you.

"Thanks!"

And so we finished off the basement giving the Familiars a place to store their career rewards and work stations. Abe and Dina then spent more time admiring each other than skilling.

Fred, who'd gotten a little bit chunky from all that healthy food he'd been eating lately, desired to get fit before his first grandchild saw him. He wanted to present a positive image to the sprog.

"I wanted Chloe to stop slapping my ass and and then laughing at the jiggles."

"Abe! Abe you're a doctor can't you do anything to make this go faster or hurt less?"

"You could try wearing a thinking cap, it always makes the hard stuff seem easier"

Welcome to the World Betty Familiar!

Betty is named for the familiar face or at least the familiar eyes of Bette Davis.

Speaking of eyes, there's apparently something wrong with genetics currently. Betty is supposed to have Alien eyes according to her SimDNA but she has brown eyes. I don't have any default eyes, and I even removed all my eye recolors to see if I could fix em but they stay Maxis brown. No one in the family has brown eyes.

In addition to her brown eyes, Betty will have red hair and medium skin tone

Fred like most elders is a wonderful Grand pop and doesn't mind taking over diaper duty at all. Which is a good thing since Dina goes into failure just thinking about diapers.

Chloe is less thrilled by the diapers but has no problem handling the gotta make the baby happy by playing repeatedly with it in order to avoid a constantly crying baby bug.

Nanny Kay on the other hand is pretty much the way she's always been.

She takes Betty down two flights of stairs to the basement, gives her a bath, leaves her on the floor down there where it's cold and goes outside to play fetch with Lexi.

"I'm gonna fire that old bitty one of these days!"

I think a cow plant would be the best option in this case Fred. We'll put one on the list of things to get asap.

We also welcome Snickers Familiar to the family. I made Snickers in the image of one of my brother's dogs. He supposed to be part lab part cocker, but I'm not that great at dog making. He's got the same wonderful personality that the real Snicks has he's friendly and smart, a little bit hyper, a little bit aggressive and not at all a pigpen. His personality will hopefully balance out the horrible personality of Lexi in the future.

Or maybe not, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

For now we'll just say that everyone in the family loves Snickers as much as I do. Even grumpy old Fred makes friends with him.

Their friendship was doomed to be short lived as the next evening when Fred arrived home from work there were two visitors on the lot. He would have enjoyed meeting Anita, but Grim didn't give him time to earn those last 1000 aspiration points.

In fact Grim didn't give anyone time to do much at all. Before the family could run out to the curb to say goodbye Grim took Fred beyond.

Grim didn't even summon the hula girls or give Fred his welcome drink, I guess he was cold it being winter and snowing. In all we were pretty disappointed by Fred's finale. Especially when the fortune sims didn't get their inheritance checks.

A messed up death didn't mean there wasn't mourning. Fred was mourned dramatically by his entire family, including the dogs. Which is good, cause I'd hate to have to hurt them for not showing proper respect for the legacy founders passing.

And so Fred Familiar joins his best buddy Tucker out in the back yard where their ghosts might some day treat me to a game of fetch. I've never seen the ghost fetch thing, I've heard of it but don't know if I believe it since ghosts have always pretty much ignored each other in my game.

Old gives way to new and a happy event can make a sad one less painful. Little Betty was tossed into toddler hood by her Daddy.

We take a peek and see that Betty is a Sagittarius with a 2/8/9/8/8 personality. Once again we have an heiress with stacked points. And she's a cutie so I guess we'll keep her.

Apparently her parents had a backup plan in mind just in case cause Dina's pregnant again. I don't know how she expects to top the Adventure career if shes always on maternity leave. But I guess since the Adventure career hasn't shown up yet it's better to get the pregnancies over now rather than later.

While Abe finishes looking for the fingerprints of the hula zombie that ran off with his inheritance

Dina nukes Betty and starts her down the path of self reliability.

Much too outgoing to want to play with toddler toys Betty is constantly luring the dogs up the stairs for cuddling. Even Lexi allows it which amazes me.

I'm going to have to rebuild the house after this generation. I'd forgotten how much of a pain it is to have the nursery upstairs.

Houston we have a problem. Snickers and Lexi are friends now, Dina is friends with both of them, but we get no try for a puppy commands on either. There's 4.5 sims and 3 dogs in the house, plenty of room for more.

Lets give a belated welcome to the family to Lex Familiar. Yeah Lex not Lexi. I coulda sworn it was female when it was born. Stupid dog.

So now I have an extra dog that I really really love and that half the family has fears of leaving the family. We don't really have room in the house, nor do I have patience for four dogs plus puppies. Abe tried to call Animal control and give Snicks away with the agreement that he could return as soon as there was a lady dog for him, but I couldn't do it, I kept making him hang up.

So Snicks is gonna survive on Kibble of Life as a young adult dog until Suzi is gone at which point we'll get a new momma dog. As much as I like Snicks and dislike Lex, Lex will get first nabs at breeding since he's of Tucker's line and therefore "heir".

The Adventure career finally appears in the want ads and Dina nabs it, she'll have to wait until two is born before she can go to work though.

For now she has wants for Lex and Snickers to get promotions so I'll put her in charge of training the doofus.

Chloe gets the easy job of tot training Betty.

Dina was once again practicing to become a Dread Pirate (I really don't have the heart to tell her she'll need body and mechanical skills more than rowing skills). But halfway thru her practice session she jumped out of the tub on her own violation which is unusual to say the least and I figured maybe something was up

And I was right, giving birth in the smallest room in the house is a trick most of my sims play on me.

Welcome to the World Barbie Familiar!

Yes she's named after a doll, after 48 years being on the shelf I figure Barbie's got a pretty dang familiar face. Like her sister Barbies eye genetics are messed up, she should have alien eyes, but exhibits Maxis brown instead, she's got her Dad's black hair and the lightest skin tone.

Oh you mean you would actually have fixed yourself some food rather than stuffing the babysface with bottles for the past four hours if only there had been food available. My bad Abe, sorry call for groceries, then pull out some leftover omelets or something.

I really wish sims would autonomously take leftovers out of the fridge, there's like 5 group meals and 50 single plates of stuff in there but he's starving.

10 bottles in 4 hours would give anyone a sour stomach Dina, just burp her and put her on the floor she'll stop crying, maybe.

And the sour stomach lasts for Barbie's entire infancy. She's like a bottle of soda just waiting to be jiggled.

Time to introduce the new sprogs to their relatives. We do an invite household to bring Al and his Llama love Robin over.

They brought along their oldest Amelia who should also have alien eyes but like her two cousins has brown ones instead. They had to leave son Aaron and the cats with Nanny Kay though and hopefully their house will survive that.

We would have thrown an actual party for the birthdays but you know both Abe and Betty are scared of parties so that won't work.

And little Betty grows up a cutie, yep she's defiantly a keeper :)

Next up to bat is Barbie of the weak tummy, be careful with the spinning Chloe.

But Barbies cake's a dud, she needed to dirty her diaper before she could be tossed. So while Robin and Abe cheered on her bowel movements the rest of the family, plus Daniel Pleasant who decided to join them, ate the cake.

Barbie was quickly cleaned up and Abe had another go at the tossing.

And she looks like her Daddy. Except for the no green skin or correctly exhibited alien eyes thing.

Barbie is a Capricorn with a pretty stacked personality 8/8/1/7/8 She's neat, outgoing, lazy, playful and nice. Not bad!

Oh yeah Dina's pregnant again. Joy of Joys, Apparently constant maternity leave appeals to her.

"I only have 1 active point, anything that lets me skip work and laze about the house for multiple days in a row appeals to me."

You also have a work related lifetime want!

"Dear do you think my deodorant is working? For some reason I don't think I smell like the fresh field of flowers that the commercial said I would"

I used to not like Suzi, but she's totally grown on me. Her personality has it's flaws and she did spawn the devil pup Lex, but she is totally patient with toddlers. She always comes up and sits next to them while they are playing with the tot toys wanting to be cuddled and since I absolutely go melty over this interaction I indulge her.

It's the first day of school Betty you don't want to be late do you? I don't think you have time to eat that muffin the bus the waiting.

Okay then maybe you did, take a few more minutes to chew before you swallow.

It's like a perpetual birthday party at this house. Suzi pops to elder hood and all the grownups even the two fortune ones roll up wants for her to retire. Away they care they really do care.

I'm not sure what's more interesting about this photo the fact that Abe has completed his lifetime want or the fact that the headmaster is laughing about Fred's death to Chloe's face.

"I really don't care how good your arts program is sir, I don't like arts."

"Really dear? What interests do you have?"

"I like kissing"

Premonitions of the headaches you're going to have once she's a teenager Dina?

"Hey everybody, it's baby time again"

"You told me I wouldn't have to change any more diapers after the last one didn't you?"

Abe's perma plat he no longer has skill building wants or earn money wants to fulfill, he can change the diapers Chloe.

"Hey I still have wants!"

None that count!

Welcome to the World Bob Familiar!

Bob as in Bob Hope, has his Daddy's alien skin tone, his Grandma's Red hair and his Mommy's bright green eyes.

"Yeah he's green"

"He takes after me the isn't he adorable?"

"Daddy why is the baby green and I'm not?"

"He's gonna be hot just like his Daddy."

"Guess what Barbie? You are now a middle child. Being a middle child means that you will always feel ignored, you aren't the oldest forging the path doing everything first, you aren't the baby being spoiled and coddled, you're just the one in the middle nothing special"

Don't worry Barbie you'll always be special to me. Even if you do have your Daddy's nose.

"And you'll always be Daddy's little girl"

"Okay okay that's enough shots of people other than me, lets hop to it people, I'm the heir lets pay attention to me!"

I made the rule about who would be heir, I can break it.

"Yeah hi Sim General? I know I've worked really hard the past 10 days to reach the top of my career and become Chief of Staff, but you know what? I quit. Yeah I dunno, something about saving lives just no longer appeals to me. I have better things to do with my time, so sorry if this puts you in a bit of a pinch but that's how it goes."

Abe's gonna be a house husband. He's got plants to talk to, way too many plants to talk to.

"I told you I'm not changing them anymore"

Diapers to change.

Neatness to encourage.

And toddlers to toss.

Blow out the candles Barbie!

And then blow on a horn cause we need to grow Bob up too.

"I can't even be the star of my own birthday. Betty was right I am a middle child."

This is a legacy dear, birthdays are a dime a dozen. You're lucky you got a cake.

And so Dina tosses Bob and he sprouts a Mohawk. The little rebel.

I'm kinda loving the whole spin to toddler in a random hairstyle thing.

Taking a peek Bob's a Aries 8/8/9/3/6 He's neat, outgoing. active, serious and playful. He'd be a great geek.

"Hurry up and cheer mister headmaster we've gotta get my stupid sister into your school so my mom can wear a thinking cap when she skills tonight"

And Barbie gets into private school. Not that she cares, she'd much rather jump on the bed.

We decided that since Fred wasn't going to work anymore that he'd try running a little produce stand in his spare time.

"What spare time? Have you seen the size of this years garden?"

Yeah I know it's a bit big. We'll cut back next year I promise.

But for now Fred will man the cash register and Dina will man the bar.

Technically she's the salesperson when she's not at work, and she does pretty well at it.

"Tomatoes? those are the orange ones right?"

And for a little while the stand does pretty good business. Until I remember that I hate home business's cause they take up too much of my sims time when they could be doing other things.

Like driving the kid that decided to take a bubble bath instead of getting on the bus to school.

Lex has a love hate relationship with the Mail lady. He's a super friendly dog that strives for attention but he's so aggressive that rather than sit patiently to be petted he barks his head off at her.

*what about me? I wanna be petted too, but nooo she pets my mom and my brother/future son in law instead*

If you wouldn't always try to bite her she'd pet you as well Lex. I promise you she would.

Uh oh, Chloe don't look behind you.

"I'm gonna wear this Captain Hero uniform for eternity aren't I?"

Yep I'm afraid so, I'm sorry, I tried to get you to the dresser in time.

At least you get the Hula Zombies, the drink and the chorus of howls.

And howls

And howls

Chloe also left the family about 30,000 in insurance which after the Fred fiasco was welcome, not that they really need money at this point but I was glad it showed up.

"Dada, where Gamma?"

"My Mommy's Dead. Wahhhhhh!"

"Gramma Dead? Wahhhhhh!"

Toddler aspiration failure is not a pretty thing, nor is trying to teach a toddler to walk, in order to get him out of aspiration failure, when the teacher has to stop and bawl every five seconds.

But eventually it works and Bob's up on his own two feet and able to give the doggies cuddles to comfort them all.

So Dina notice anything missing?

"Nope but I got money somehow, that's so cool!"

You better start mourning fast Dina.

"Why?"

"Cause if you don't start crying for my wife I'll make you cry!"

Fred's ghost finally appeared. He hadn't shown up before this. I'm guessing that it took Chloe's death to trigger whatever went wrong with his death/ghost script.

Except for occasional wants to fall in love with various new friends like Checo and Nervous, Chloe never was all that annoying as a romance sim. She and Fred loved each other, their three bolt attraction made them a cute kinda stalkerish couple and if not watched they would have pillow fought and water balloon battled until they starved. For a grump Fred was never very mean, especially not to his family.

Rest in Peace Fred and Chloe Familiar You will be missed.

The family that gardens together,

Misses pet deaths together.

I always miss the pet deaths. I haven't been getting a little pop up window for them. I need the little pop up windows. I'm sorry Suzi.

Rest in PeaceTucker and Suzi Familiar You will be missed.

"Why don't we get to play with normal toys like everybody else?"

"Cause Daddy needs more boots for the produce stand."

"Daddy's Weird"

"Yeah"

"Now I know that five of us have wants to get a new pet in our panels, but you know raising a dog is a big responsibility Betty. I don't know if you can handle it, wouldn't you rather get a wurmrat and see if you can handle caring for that first?"

"Daddy I'm not a baby, I'm going to be a teenager today and my want panel is full of get a new pet wants. Don't you want me to grow up well? I do! See? It's the only non get a pet want in my panel."

"If I tip you 100 simoleans will you promise that you'll stop at McSimmy's on your way home for dinner and not burn my kitchen down while I go get us another dog?"

"Maybe"

So Fred takes a very quick trip to the mini mall to pick out a new dog for the family. Not so quickly that we don't check and recheck the gender of said new dog ten times over before getting too attached.

We ended up with this pretty little Lady created by AMjoie who creates some of the most beautiful and realistic dogs and cats I've seen.

Welcome to the family Lady Familiar. Lady's got a sweet little personality. She's not a genius but not a doofus either, she's friendly, kinda hyper, sometimes a bit aggressive and a bit finicky.

Time for the heiress to spin to teenager you've already gotten the dog you wanted so blow out the candles Betty!

And Betty rolls romance with a lifetime want to woohoo with 20.

Thanks Betty, thanks a lot.

"I told you I liked kissing!"

I don't see how you'd know that.

"Sander and I played doctor instead of chess"

While Betty was taking her time blowing out the candles Bob decided he couldn't wait to be brought to the cake so he grew up on his own upstairs. I'm sorry Bob I bought you a cake and everything.

"That's Okay! I'm happy I've got hands!"

You've also got really bad clothe. To the dresser and the mirror you go young man!

Much better isn't he adorable now? I love this kid, I could just eat him all up.

But you'll have to wait till next chapter to find out why.

Until then, Thanks for reading, and Happy Simming!